CSPA award for excellence in teaching presented to retired journalism professor from the University of Oklahoma
Charles R. O´Malley congratulates Laura L. Schaub on receiving the award for excellence in teaching that bears his name.
Photo : Joe Piniero
The Columbia Scholastic Press Association conferred a special honor on Laura L. Schaub, a recently retired professor of journalism at the University of Oklahoma.
Schaub received the Charles R. O'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching for "her far-sighted and exemplary work in conceiving, writing and designing the CSPA's 2003 Special Edition awards CD-ROM," according to the award citation.
The project won recognition from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and is now a permanent part of the CSPA's work.
Prior to her retirement, Schaub served as executive director of the OIPA at the University of Oklahoma, where she also taught courses in typography, design, desktop publishing and photography. Previously, she taught journalism courses and advised student publications at Charles Page High School in Sand Springs, Okla., for 22 years. Schaub is a CSPA Gold Key recipient, past Oklahoma Journalism Teacher of the Year and former DJNF Distinguished Adviser.
She was inducted into the National Scholastic Journalism Hall of Fame in 1991 and served as president of the CSPAA for two terms. She chaired the CSPAA Judging Standards and Practices Committee for over 10 years. In March 2001, she received the Col. Joseph M. Murphy Award from CSPA and The New York Times for outstanding service to scholastic journalism. In 2002, she received the James F. Paschal Award for service as a state scholastic press association director. She also recently was named one of 75 Legends in Texas Scholastic Journalism.
Schaub retired from the University of Oklahoma in January, 2004 to join Jostens as a national creative accounts manager for their yearbook division.
Jostens, based in Minneapolis, Minn., was founded in 1897 and is a leading provider of products, programs and services that help people celebrate important moments, recognize achievements and build affiliations. The company's products include yearbooks, class rings, graduation products, school photography and products for athletic champions and their fans.
The following is the citation for the Charles R. O'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching, presented on March 19, 2004 at Columbia University in the City of New York.
Edmund J. Sullivan, director of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, read the citation during a special Awards Luncheon in the Faculty Room of Columbia's Low Memorial Library.
Now entering its 80th year, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association has given many awards for excellence in advising and teaching.
Since 1930, the Association has conferred Gold Keys on advisers, professional journalists and others in public life who have supported students practicing scholastic journalism. To date, more than 700 Gold Keys have been conferred.
In 1955, the Advisers Association began a practice of conferring Life Memberships to retiring advisers in good standing.
In 1987, the Advisers Association created the James F. Paschal Award, given annually, to recognize dedicated service by officials of state scholastic press associations.
In 1997, the CSPA created the Joseph M. Murphy Award for Outstanding Service, named for its founding Director, to honor those who have contributed in significant and lasting ways to the Association's work.
In 1998, the CSPA created the Charles R. O'Malley Award, named to honor its second Director and benefactor, to signify stellar achievement in the teaching of student journalists.
Never before have the two Associations, CSPA and CSPAA, presented all of these honors to one person: Gold Key, Life Membership, James Paschal Award, Joseph Murphy Award and now, Charles O'Malley Award.
Today, we present the Charles R. O'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching to a distinguished colleague, recently retired from teaching.
When the Association presented Laura Schaub with the Joseph M. Murphy Award for Outstanding Service in 2001, she was cited for the following contributions: "For more than 20 years she has attended the CSPA's Annual Conventions, presenting as many as eight seminars each year on topics ranging from design trends for yearbooks to counseling advisers on how to stay "semi-sane" in the midst of chaos. She has continually volunteered to present sessions, offer critiques, judge competitions, write articles and give speeches to student editors, faculty advisers and professionals in both journalism and education.
"Our honoree has been student editor, professional journalist, teacher of journalism, and adviser of student newspaper, yearbook and magazine. She has also been a school district public relations director, university professor and director of her state's scholastic press association."
Today, with the O'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching, the CSPA honors her vision in conceiving and implementing the CSPA's Special Award Edition on CD-ROM in 2003.
She conceived of using readily available software to showcase hundreds of scanned images from the top award winning newspapers, yearbooks and magazines in the Association's Crown Awards program. For more than 20 years the CSPA had grappled with the problem of explaining the results of the Crown Award competition.
The CSPA needed not only to describe the judging criteria, but also to show many of the winning entries to all of its members in a format they could use to improve their own future work.
This project won recognition for its outreach from the Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication at its convention in August 2003.
Response by advisers and staffs that have used the CD-ROM has been universally positive and the Association has adopted the project as a permanent addition to its work.
For her far-sighted and exemplary work in conceiving, writing and designing the CSPA's 2003 Special Awards Edition CD-ROM, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association is proud to honor Laura L. Schaub by presenting her with the Charles R. O'Malley Award for Excellence in Teaching.
